We first posted this reply on ‘Amazon’ where it remained for some six months before being deleted — along with many others which were unfavourable to Jim Perrin.
It is our belief that he caused the removal of the majority of these himself; as we pointed out in an earlier post, Jim Perrin’s Fiefdom, in our opinion the author has been manipulating the internet for some time:
Posted February 2011:
‘Yes, Mac, we do believe that Jim Perrin author of West is also the ‘author’, either wholly or in part, of many of the reviews of his book and subsequent comments. Ref. our posts A Question of Identity and In Poor Taste.
In our opinion there has been an attempt to promote his own work and at the same time, fearing our disclosures, to protect himself by questioning our probity. (It is said attack is the best form of defence!)
Starting of course with ‘Melangel’ in The Guardian, without whose initial spiteful and increasingly vicious comments we might not have been so determined, and who we absolutely believe, could be none other than Jim Perrin — and, perfecting the ‘female style’? followed by ‘Liz’ and ‘My Sweet Waterfall’ (on ‘To Hatch a Crow’). There was also a brief appearance of ‘Amanda Townend’, (who, we are aware, is someone known to Jim Perrin).
Lywarch (on Amazon) must be Jim Perrin, at least we believe it is so; and ‘Mark’, we feel, is almost certainly yet another alias/borrowed name as well as ‘Rich’; and we are sure that ‘Rob MacNeacail’ has been ‘borrowed’ or ‘hijacked’.
If it was proved that we are wrong in any of our conclusions, we would of course apologise, nevertheless it has been an interesting exercise to read between the lines of those comments whose authenticity we have suspected; seeking for clues which would seem to confirm our theory.
The words, patterns and repetitions; clever feints and acidic ‘put downs’ — not forgetting the literary quotes and recommendations — do lead us to believe that Jim Perrin has, quite possibly, multiple personas.
What is also remarkable is that if the perpetrator is Jim Perrin, so many other reviewers and commentators (besides ourselves) have been castigated and ‘put right’ by him. A re-reading of the The Guardian and ‘To Hatch a Crow’ threads makes a fascinating study and clearly shows what we mean.
Sir Andrew Motion received a particularly withering and spiteful response for his review from ‘Melangell’ — ‘a much better poet than Andrew Motion…’!
Yet we have not tried to highlight what are (in our opinion) spurious entries with any malicious intent. It is however, our absolute intention ‘to put the record straight’ and quite simply, if we are right, we believe these entries prove a very questionable ‘attribute’ which surely must reflect on the book in which Jim Perrin has written as ‘truth’ many provable lies in his frequently dishonest portrayal of his time with our sister.
Jac’s sisters.